


Between Gods and Psychics

by kiwideviant



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga), 斉木楠雄のΨ難 | Saiki Kusuo no Sai-nan | The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual Character, Asexual Saiki Kusuo, Asexual Yagami Light, Crack Crossover, Crossover, During Canon, Gen, Will add more tags in the future, Yagami Light is Kira, but not saiki k canon, mostly follows death note canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27984093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiwideviant/pseuds/kiwideviant
Summary: An odd new student transfers to Light Yagami’s high school. Rumours are going around that this pink-haired teenager is secretly psychic, but Light finds it impossible to believe. That is, until both of their supernatural powers collide...
Comments: 82
Kudos: 334





	1. a pink brick wall

**Author's Note:**

> Just to clarify, this started off as a crackfic but as I kept on writing it started becoming semi-serious, so the tone might change slightly between chapters. Also this is my first proper fanfic involving these two fandoms, so sorry if the characterization is a bit off. I’ll try to get a new chapter out every week either on Saturday or Sunday.

All morning, Light Yagami has heard the whispers and rumours of the other students. It’s just about to annoy the hell out of him. A new student isn’t anything special, yet its being treated as though they’re a celebrity.

“Taro told me he has bright pink hair!”

“I think he might be an alien!”

“Alien? I’m pretty sure he’s just psychic!”

“Then how do you explain the antennas?”

Antennas? Pink hair? Light scoffs. It’s ridiculous. And obviously not true. Aliens and psychics don’t exist.

The only magic in this world is the death note, and only Light has access to it. It might be hypocritical of him to denounce the existence of psychics and aliens, considering he knows supernatural magic is possible. However, the difference is that he’s seen Ryuk and the death note’s power first-hand. Its existence is proven. Things like ghosts, mediums and the like are all baseless speculation with nothing to go off of.

He’s surprised to hear how easily his classmates believe these stupid rumours. He knows he’s the top of his class, but since finding the death note, everyone else has seemed a lot more... was gullible the right word?

He doesn’t want to be rude, but his classmates are painfully average, which has made school more unbearable than ever. The only thing keeping him going is the fact that he has to keep suspicion of him low. If he suddenly stops trying in school, his parents will know something is up, which could potentially lead to them finding the death note.

If he’s being honest, a tiny part of him wants the rumours about the new student to be real. Life in school would become a lot more interesting. However, there’s no way he would ever believe something so outlandish.

As his classmates continue talking, Light waits impatiently in his desk at the back of the room. He shouldn’t have come to school as early as he did—he hates having to wait around.

With his head resting on his palm, Light looks over to the classroom door as someone walks in. At the sight of the new guy, Light’s eyes widen. The other students don’t look very different from him. Shock fills their faces. Some verbally express their astonishment. Light remains silent, as usual, but he can’t believe his own eyes. Ryuk laughs aloud at Light’s reaction.

The new guy is wearing the school uniform, but that’s the only normal thing about him. He has green glasses on his face, hiding the true colours of his eyes, and his hair is just as the rumours said... bright, neon pink. Two short antennae-like objects stick in his hair, with pink spheres on the end. Despite his notable appearance, his face is neutral. Light can’t see any visible emotion on this guy. Does he even realize how weird he looks? He must; everyone is staring at him.

Light... is staring at him.

The moment he realizes, he looks down at his desk. Nobody else is aware of their lack of manners. They stare and ask question at the guy as he sits down at an empty desk in the back of the classroom—right next to Light.

The guys sets his blue bag on the ground next to him. Out of Light’s peripheral vision, he can see him pull out a book and stick his nose in it, ignoring everyone who tries to make conversation. He won’t even look at anyone, let alone talk to them. Maybe he doesn’t want to stand out. But then why have the weird objects on his head? Instead, he probably realizes he does stand out and is used to people being shocked at his appearance.

The bell rings and class starts. The teacher makes a passing mention at the new student—named Kusuo Saiki—and everything goes as usual. For some reason, the teacher seems to not notice his appearance. The more Light thinks about it, it makes sense. A teacher should never judge a student by their looks. Students, however, don’t need to follow such customs as strictly.

The whispers continue all through out class, everyone treating the new student like he’s not even in the room. Kusuo’s face remains blank the whole time. Could he be deaf? No—if he is, then he wouldn’t be in a normal class.

The rest of the day, Light keeps thinking about the new guy. He understands why the rumours spread so quickly now. He’s not a psychic—that’s impossible—but he clearly wants to look like one. The dyed hair, the fake antennas... it’s too obvious. He wants to people to notice him. _He probably likes all the attention_ , Light realizes somewhat indignantly. The one thing that doesn’t make sense, though, is how much he tries to avoid everyone. If he wants attention, why is he acting like he doesn’t?

Light tells himself that he’s not going to get distracted by this guy any longer. He has to focus on the death note. But no matter what he does, his thoughts keep going back to the new student. He knows he’s only giving him what he wants, but...

When lunchtime comes, Light goes to the library. By coincidence, Kusuo is there too, sitting at one of the tables in the corner. He is far away from the other students and he remains fairly hidden. Kusuo can sit wherever he likes, but taking the exact spot where Light spends his lunch seems like the world is working against him. Even sitting there, students surround him while others watch from a distance. They talk much louder than should be acceptable in a library, but no teacher is there to stop them. Light grumbles under his breath. _Is this guy really so special?_

In his annoyance, an idea hits him. He fixes his hair and walks up to the crowd. He holds his bag tight to his body, not wanting to risk anyone even getting close to the death note inside. “Hey, guys, give him some space. I’m sure you guys bombarding him like this is weirding him out.” Light lets out a small laugh, trying to keep the mood light. Some people hear him and back off, but others pretend like he’s not there at all.

“Are you listening? It’s his first day. Don’t you guys know how to be polite?” Light realizes he sounds demeaning, but he can’t help it. He clenches his jaw in an attempt to hide his frustration. When the rest of the students finally notice him, he smiles. They listen to him—of course they do, he’s popular after all—and back off. Once they scatter, Light sees Kusuo sitting there, focusing only on his book.

Not even a “thank you”? Not a single glance upward? Or look of appreciation?

Light clears his throat loudly. No reaction. “Er, I saw you in class this morning.” He keeps his voice light and airy. Yet, still nothing. “It’s kind of funny, I usually sit here during lunch.” He laughs. It’s not funny at all, but it causes Kusuo to finally tear his eyes away from his book and look at him. “My name is Light Yagami.” He puts a hand out, which Kusuo doesn’t take. Any attempt to make conversation falls flat. Light breathes out a bit too harshly, making it obvious how he feels. If Kusuo noticed, he doesn’t make it clear, looking back down and reading.

He should leave. He can always find another place to use the death note. Maybe its curiosity, or even jealousy, but Light sits down next to him. People begin take notice of the popular guy sitting next to the peculiar new student and the whispering starts up again. Light realizes this is pointless and only draws attention to himself, but he feels an intense desire to know more about him. The death note can wait until he gets home.

Then, something strange happens. A normal person wouldn’t notice it, but Light has always been detail-oriented and he can notice things like this. Things like the way Kusuo glances up at him for less than a second. Things like his change in demeanour, almost tensing up, and his back straightening. If Light didn’t know any better, he would have thought Kusuo heard him thinking.

“I’m Kusuo Saiki,” the new guy says finally, voice low—and noticeably deeper than Light’s—but, that’s not the weirdest thing. Light could have sworn his mouth didn’t move as he spoke, though that was probably his imagination.

Nervousness runs through him, adjacent to the way Kusuo tenses up slightly. Something about this guy feels untrustworthy. The air feels heavier, like Kusuo knows more than he’s letting on.

The best course of action would be to break the awkward silence. “I don’t want to pry, but—what’s with the antennas?” Kusuo ignores him once again. No matter how hard Light tries to get through to him, he can’t get anything. The guy is like a brick wall and Light is going to need a hammer to break through.

Light doesn’t take out the death note, for obvious reasons. And the two of them don’t say a word to each other for the rest of the day. After a painfully awkward lunch, the rest of the school day comes and goes smoothly.

Light has one more class with Kusuo in the afternoon, but he doesn’t want to risk looking like a stalker, so he sits on the opposite end of the room. The class is uneventful, and Light goes home right after.

He greets Sayu and his mom and goes straight upstairs. By now, his family has gotten used to him being in his bedroom more often, trusting that all he’s doing is studying. His father is still at work. He’s been working a lot longer recently, though Light isn’t completely sure why. He doesn’t want to assume it has something to do with the increased heart attacks among criminals, but it’s obvious people have begun to notice Light’s work. If the police aren’t talking about it now, they will very soon.

He sits in the dark of his room and his mind drifts back to Kusuo Saiki. Ryuk pesters him about his fascination with the new student. _It’s not a fascination, it’s simply harmless curiosity._ He ignores Ryuk, as he does most of the time, but he has to rethink Ryuk’s words the moment he realizes he almost writes Kusuo’s name in the death note. Deep in his absentminded thoughts, he had half his name down before coming back to reality.

Light closes the book. He must just be tired.

But as he goes to sleep that night, he can’t help but think that Kusuo has begun to invade his thoughts. _Perhaps he really is a psychic._


	2. An Unnatural Obsession

Overnight, Light was able to explain away his curiosity towards Kusuo. His intense boredom has made him attach to anything interesting. That, combined with the coincidence of Kusuo taking Light’s spot during lunch, has made the new guy seem more interesting than he really is.

Light is awake long before he has to get ready for school. He goes to his desk and opens the death note to see the first part of Kusuo Saiki’s name written there. Does it count as a misspelling? Or is it simply nothing because it’s unfinished? Either way, it means nothing as long as the guy didn’t die from it.

“Are you going to write anything or just stare at that page for an hour?” Ryuk teases, his overbearing shadow looming directly over Light. The one thing Light has learned about his new friend the past couple of days is that he gets bored—very easily. He has trouble finding things to keep his shinigami busy and, oftentimes, that leaves him to bear with Ryuk’s complaints for hours at a time. It’s exhausting. But it’s also forced him to get creative.

“Ryuk. I want you to try something.” He spins around in his chair to face his shinigami.

“Huh? What?”

“You have to stay near me at all times, right?” Light already knows the answer—he just wants to confirm it.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Why don’t you try seeing how far you can go? Maybe you can reach the basket of apples in the kitchen. Just—don’t eat them in front of anyone, obviously.”

“Oh yeah, I can do that. Why haven’t I thought of that?” Ryuk chuckles and phases through the bedroom door.

Light leans back, satisfied, then twirls his chair back around and turns on his TV. For the next hour, Light writes names in his death note. There’s still a long way before the world can become a perfect place and Light can’t waste anymore time on Ryuk’s pointless banter. His ploy only distracts Ryuk for about thirty minutes, but at that point Light is focused on his task at hand.

-

He makes it to class on time. Perfectly on time, in fact. The bell rings just as he settles in his desk. Kusuo is here before him, reading a different book today. Though he told himself he would forget about the new student today, the pink hair stands out like a red apple among a sea of green ones. Attention-seeker comes to his mind once again. He’s not shy, that’s already been established; he seems to simply dislike people in general. But it’s contradictory. Light sighs under his breath—he can’t figure this guy out.

The teachers starts talking about Shakespeare—Light isn’t very interested, he knows this stuff. Instead, his attention is focused on his classmates. Most are listening to the teacher, some are playing games under their desks, and others are whispering to their friends. It’s like an average day—but it’s too normal.

Unlike the frenzy that took place yesterday, no one pays the slightest attention to Kusuo today. Perhaps everyone has realized he’s just an attention-seeker, and the excitement has worn off. The timing of it though, it’s as if they all came to conclusion at the same time.

Light glances at Kusuo, only moving his eyes and keeping his head still. He is staring straight ahead. He still can’t get a read on his emotions. Everyone, no matter who they are or however great their facade is, lets their mask slip at some point, even if it’s just for a second, for a flinch. But Kusuo doesn’t seem to be putting on act—his lack of emotion is the truth. He doesn’t seem to care about anything. He ignores Ryuk’s chuckling behind him, too deep in thought to question it.

Then, out of nowhere, they make eye contact. Less than a second, and Light looks away. His heart is racing, much like when he was a kid and his parents found out he stole a bag of chips from the top cabinet. At the time, he didn’t know how they knew, but he distinctly remembers the tightness in his chest when he realized he wasn’t as good of a liar as he thought.

Light may not know Kusuo’s thoughts, but he gets the strangest feeling that Kusuo knows his. Just a second, just a flinch, and his entire facade unravels. Does Kusuo know?

Ryuk laughs again. _What the hell is going on?_

Light’s arm shoots straight up. “I-I need to use the bathroom!”

-

“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed that.” Light’s arms are crossed over his chest, eyes stalking Ryuk as the shinigami climbs atop the bathroom stalls.

“Huh? Noticed what?” He peeks his head down into a stall, legs flailing up toward the ceiling like a troublesome cat.

“It’s too normal. How can everyone already be used to the new student, after practically crawling all over him the whole day yesterday? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Really? I only remember _you_ crawling all over him.” Ryuk teases, causing Light to roll his eyes. “What? You were following him around like a pet!”

“Hm. You’re one to talk.” Light has no patience for him right now. He ignores as Ryuk shouts defensively. “Everyone was so interested in him yesterday, but now they’re all treating him like he’s a regular student. And I—I don’t trust him. He has to be hiding something.”

“Maybe everyone was right about him being a psychic.”

He shuts his eyes. “Don’t say such stupid things. Psychics don’t exist.” He thinks about it for a few moments, and opens his eyes to look at Ryuk. “Well, you would know, wouldn’t you? Do they exist?”

“Eh, I dunno.” He said, peeking into another stall. “There’s no apples anywhere! _I’m starving_!”

“Can you please focus for once?”

Ryuk lifts his head and looks at Light mischievously. “Only if you give me an apple.”

Well, if that’s his only request, Light can oblige. He pulls out an apple from his bag and holds out his palm. Ryuk bites it out of his hand, making wet slurping and chewing noises as he does so. Keeping a shinigami around is a lot more like having a pet than he realized. And he isn’t very fond of animals in the first place.

“Mm. I’ll never get tired of these things.” Ryuk says with his mouth still full of apple. He swallows dramatically. “Anyway, I don’t know anything about ‘magic’ existing in your world. The shinigami realm is all I know. Only you humans would know if psychics exist or not. It’s not my ‘department’, so to speak.”

His answer is the opposite of helpful. “Then that does it. He’s just a normal guy.” Light chuckles to himself. “How could I even consider that? Of _course_ he’s not psychic.” It doesn’t make him trust him any more, though. He still gets the feeling that there’s more to Kusuo than meets the eye. “But I have one more question.”

“Huh?”

“Why were you laughing earlier?”

“When?”

Light rolls his eyes. “Don’t play with me. In class, obviously.”

“Oh, I just find it funny...” he trails off and peeks into the vents on the upper walls.

“Tell me, Ryuk,” he says, starting to wish he could write his name in the death note.

“I’ve just never seen you so interested in another human before.”

Light tenses up. “And what is _that_ supposed to mean?” Before he can get an answer, the bell rings. He wasn’t keeping track of the time. As much as he wants to pry further, he needs to get to his next class. A students walks into the bathroom, ensuring their conversation is halted for the time being.

-

Light never gets the chance to ask Ryuk what he meant in the bathroom that day.

Because after school, in his room, on his television appears a man named Lind L Tailor, also known as L. He’s a renowned detective—who’s apparently determined to stop Kira.

_Stop Kira?_

It’s a ridiculous notion, and yet it irritates Light to no end. But as long as he has the notebook, nobody can stop him. It’s impossible. In fact, this guy is an idiot for freely making his name and face available to the public.

He’s barely an obstacle, but an obstacle nonetheless. And so Light has to take this into his own hands.

_Nobody can stop Kira._

He writes Lind L Tailor’s name in the notebook.

Light can’t help but gloat. The guy was so determined. His eyes were practically glowing with determination. But, no matter how much determination he feels, nobody can match Kira’s power.

The 40 seconds pass, and the pathetic man dies.

Suddenly, the letter “L” appears on screen, and every last shimmer of joy in Light’s face fades. _This is the real L?_

It was a trap, and he had fallen right into it. He cautiously watches the still screen, which only shows the letter “L” and nothing else. No face, no name. Light has nothing to go off of to write _this_ guy’s name in the death note. The more L speaks, the more cold Light feels.

_C- catch Kira?_

His eyes widen.

Forget the new student.

He has to kill L.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *finally checks time* “It’s after Christmas already?!”
> 
> I meant to get this out before xmas, but that didn’t end up happening. But, I’ll try to get new chapters out every week from now on! (also there will definitely be more stuff w/ kusuo next chapter, promise)


	3. A Different Kind of Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew finally! I suddenly got interested in this fic again so here’s a new chapter! Hopefully the next one won’t be as long of a wait.

It’s been almost two weeks since the “L” incident. In that time, Light has learned a lot about the death note and his brand new arch nemesis. Being able to control the time of death has proven very useful to keep L off his trail.

Light has basically been working every hour he’s awake. Besides making sure suspicion is off of him, keeping the death note secret from his family and continuing killing criminals, he also has to make sure his grades are on par with his parent’s high standards. It’s safe to say his mind has been on overdrive since L introduced himself.

Despite that, he’s been enjoying this feeling of power every time he diverts L’s expectations. He has total control over this situation, and the likelihood of L learning about the death note and connecting it to Light is slim to none.

L would have to read Light’s mind to ever figure that he’s Kira.

Speaking of which, Light has barely paid any mind to Kusuo, though he can’t completely ignore his presence like everyone else seems to be doing. In any case, he wants to spend as little of his energy thinking about that fake psychic as possible. He avoids him whenever he can, which isn’t difficult considering he spends most of his time outside the school or in the library during lunch.

Whenever Light is close to him, he feels instinctively nervous. He can say it’s Kusuo’s “psychic” powers, but Light still isn’t convinced that kind of thing is real. Though he prides himself on his composure, he can’t help but feel anxious around the guy, like he’s staring straight into Light’s soul.

Of course, that’s an exaggeration. Kusuo is suspicious, sure, but harmless. If anything he’s probably just antisocial. Light sometimes wishes he could be as introverted as him, but he has to keep up appearances, being a popular student and all.

-

Light goes to the library at lunch to study. Even his breaks have been spent working, but he hasn’t had the time to relax. He needs to write names at home where he has access to the death note, so any extra time he has should be spent working on school.

He sits in a booth in the corner where he can be alone and focused. While writing in his notebook, deeply invested in his calculus work, he sees something that catches his eye in his peripheral vision.

A pink tuft of hair enters Light’s isle, and though he’s a few meters away, he immediately recognizes the new student. He looks up, but Kusuo doesn’t seem to realize he’s here.

A group of students enter the library, chatting loudly without a care in the world. Kusuo notices them too—it’s not like it’s difficult—and even without any emotion on his face, Light knows he feels irritated, because he does too. A teacher walks up to the group, made up of boys that clearly aren’t there to read.

Kusuo goes back to what he was doing, and reaches his arm toward the top of the bookshelf he’s standing in front of. He struggles to reach whatever book he’s trying to get. Light considers helping him, but hesitates, because he’s not particularly interested in getting involved in his business. The students are in the middle of getting kicked out of the library, complaining loudly, while Kusuo keeps reaching upwards.

Just as Light is about to get up to help Kusuo, a book comes out of the tightly packed shelf and stays still in the air. It descends into Kusuo’s hand, deliberately and slowly. The pink-haired student cracks a smile, the first emotion Light has seen on his face, and he walks out of view.

Light’s head is rushing, and Ryuk laughs. “Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting that. Guess you were right after all. “

So Ryuk saw it, too, meaning Light didn’t imagine that. He jumps to his feet and heads toward where he saw Kusuo, walking fast but not enough to alert anyone. When he turns the corner, the new guy is gone.

-

Everything that Light has to focus on is thrown out the window. His priority is to figure what in the world happened in the library. But the next time he sees Kusuo is during the last class of the day. The guy is sitting on the opposite side of the room. Light can’t talk to him here. He’ll have to wait until after school.

His leg bounces uncontrollably as the time passes, minute by minute by minute. Light usually has an impressive pokerface, but right now the time passes so agonizingly slowly that he’s sure his impatience is visible to everyone.

Once the bell rings, he has to hold himself back from jumping out of his seat.

-

He’s aware how creepy it is as he follows the pink-haired student out of the school doors, staying a few feet back to remain undetected. Even if he wasn’t, Ryuk’s taunts would let him know how stalker-y he’s acting.

Once Kusuo is far enough from the school that no other students are around, Light walks up to him. “Hey, Kusuo! It’s Kusuo, right?” Light barely catches up to him, and even when he does, his classmate doesn’t look at him. He’s never been ignored like this before, but he can’t let that affect him now.

“Sorry. I’m too busy to talk.” Kusuo says.

Light slows down a bit when he makes it to Kusuo’s side, and pretends like he didn’t hear what he said. “I’ve heard the rumours. You’re psychic, right?” If he is, Kusuo will have a reaction. If he isn’t, Light can pass it off as a joke.

He doesn’t expect him to have such a dry reaction, though.

“No.” He says, but his mouth doesn’t move along with his words. Light stops in his tracks, the shock freezing his feet to the sidewalk. Kusuo’s voice feels like it’s in Light’s head when he speaks.

The new student keeps walking, and in the midst of Light’s rising anxiety, he runs up to him and blocks him from moving forward. He knows he’s drawing more suspicion by doing this, but there’s nothing in his mind that stops him. He needs to get answers, because if Kusuo is really psychic—if he can really read minds—then can he read Light’s mind? Does that mean he knows about the death note?

Can Kusuo... hear his thoughts right now?

The new guy stops, and it feels like time freezes. Light looks at his blank face, searching for anything that might alleviate the fear that his worst nightmare is reality.

He blinks. The street stares right back at him, empty.

“Uh...” Light looks around wildly, but he can only see Ryuk catching up to him.

“Hey! Are you avoiding me?” The shinigami yells from afar.

He’s not, but it looks like Kusuo is avoiding him.

-

Light heads straight home after his encounter with Kusuo. His thoughts are racing, clashing together as he tries to reasonably explain the events of today. He saw a book float in the air, presumably because Kusuo made it do that. He also saw him vanish from his eyes twice, with no explanation for how he disappeared so quickly. And a week ago, when everyone suddenly stopped paying attention to the new guy, was that Kusuo’s doing?

There is no rationality here. Just like there’s no rationality that explains how the death note works. But it means that there are other means of supernatural magic besides shinigami and death notes. Which is a huge problem for Light, because now he doesn’t have total control over his situation.

“Light, you got a second?” Ryuk says.

Light sighs. “I told you not to talk to me as much as possible when we’re outside.” He whispers, glancing down the street to make sure no one heard him.

Ryuk continues rambling about whatever he has to say and Light ignores him. He speaks up to make Ryuk think he’s listening, but can’t deal with his antics right now.

However, something he says catches Light’s interest.

“Someone has been following you for a while now.”

And Light stops. His first thought is Kusuo, but he has no reason to follow him. Perhaps it’s someone else who saw what happened between him and the psychic. If he looks back, he’ll seem suspicious, so he continues walking.

He _really_ didn’t need another problem to worry about on top of everything else.


End file.
